Archive for May 2011

Great weekend, as usual, in Jamestown. Chet and I got up bright and early on Sat morning and made it to Jamestown in under three hours. We actually woke Mike up because he didn’t get home from the Bruins (they won!!) game until 1am.

Sat we planted a few geraniums, squash and peppers at the Jamestown house, washed our car, caught up with the family. Then Lauren, Ryan Mike and I went to Amanda’s for a bbq. I made guacamole and it was a huge hit. This is Amanda’s backyard (where Mike proposed to me exactly three years ago).

Sun we went golfing at Jamestown (Ellen, Lauren, Ryan, Mike, me). It was a good outting but I’m looking for new clubs so once I have those I’ll be all set. After we went sailing . . . here are a few pictures from our outting.

(Mike had to row the dingy back like this because the orelock broke off!)

Sun night had a nice bbq which included grilled halibut and chicken, potato and green salad and then a stop at the neighborhood ice cream parlor for dessert.

We all officially survived our first weekend at Camp Dierks. Chet was too tired to keep his tongue in his mouth on the ride home.

We got home at 2, went to the gym, went to Vicki and Dave’s for a cocktail and then to Five Leaves where I had a beat and citrus salad with fried oysters – YUM.

How cute is this picture? Kitty wanted a picture of a dog sitting-while browsing through my pictures, this one made me smile. I can’t believe both dogs actually were looking at the camera. (Chester and Cody, Janice’s dog )

Well, I’m back. Its been a VERY long few days but I made it and it’s almost Memorial Day weekend!

My trip out to San Fran on Sunday night was an adventure. It took the cab 2 hours to get me to the airport and by the time I got there they had given away my seat so I was bumped to the 7pm flight. Got into San Fran at midnight, up at 4am . . . all day at Jamba . . . 7pm flight to Vegas . . . bed by 10pm, up at 4am, conference all day . . . dinner with other ICR colleagues and bed by 10pm, up at 4am . . . conference all day . . . flight at 5pm, arrived into JFK at 1:30am . . .got home and the door was triple locked so I spent 15 minutes ringing the doorbell waiting for Mike to let me in. Feel asleep at 3am, up at 6:30am . . . yeah, I desperately need a long weekend.

Every time I go to Vegas (or San Fran for that matter) I’m dying to go back and spend some time with Mike and friends just hanging out by the pool having cocktails and enjoying a nice dinner at one of the mega-overdone restaurants and finishing off the day with a game of craps (where I would, of course, win hundreds of dollars). Not sure it’s ever going to happen. Maybe I just dream of that because every time I’m in Vegas I’m in a suit and watching people have fun in the pool from a stuffy conference room (not really fair that all of the ballrooms overlook the pool and have shear drapes).

I usually stay at a the Venetian because . . . well $160 a night gets you a room like this (pardon the poor quality of my cell phone pictures).

Last time I stayed there I had a pretty sick strip view but this time got a pretty sick sunrise view (if you can look past the parking garage and street lights :))

I did get to spend a few minutes by the pool (in my suit of course) after the first day at the conference. It ended at 4pm so sat there and got caught up on my emails.

I have a few client meetings with Don today (so I’m, unhappily, wearing a suit for the fourth day in a row) and hope to talk him into stopping by Jamba on the way back to try one of their new refreshers. They look really . . . refreshing!

I think it will be ready for the next baby girl quilt I will be lucky enough to welcome to life.

These blocks are from a round robin (meaning several fellow quilters worked on these blocks.) I’m trying to figure out how to blend the blocks to make a cohesive quilt. The bright green is just holding the blocks, not part of the quilt.

I bet you never thought you would hear those words from me. I worked on F Jane Monday night, sewed at Judy’s Tuesday, met again at Judy’s Thursday night, emceed a workshop on Saturday, attended a board meeting on Monday night , and back to Judy’s today. In the few minutes I’ve been home, I’ve worked on your dress.

Starting May 21, we’re launching an all-food bonanza called “Smorgasburg”—every Saturday at the new Williamsburg site from 9am to 5pm. Smorgasburg (thank Brownstoner for the name and Camden for the awesome design) will feature 100+ food vendors—packaged, cooked, raw, Mason Jar’d, and more—as well as a bonafide GrowNYC Greenmarket with 15-20 farmers (see lineup below).

We’ll have lots of updates in the weeks to come (sign up to receive news at Smorgasburg.com; follow us on Facebook and Twitter). But right now what we want are the very best food vendors/purveyors/growers anywhere to apply for Smorgasburg, so we can create the next phase of local/regional market, and also make the tastiest/healthiest/ friendliest food available to as many people as possible. If you’re interested, click here to apply. And help spread the word if anyone you know would be perfect for Smorgasburg. Thanks!

Here are our goals with Smorgasburg: directly connect local/NYC purveyors with regional farmers/producers; make good, fresh, affordable food accessible to as many people as possible; provide purveyors and farmers with a platform to sustain their businesses; and create a market that makes eating and buying food fun, democratic, and easy.

But that’s not all. We’ll also have a kitchenwares booth by the fine folks at Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Kitchen; an interactive kids activities area organized by Moomah, the awesome Tribeca playspace, featuring Moomah’s signature art projects that foster connections to each other and the world around us—at Smorgasburg the projects will explore the foods found at the market as well as the sights and sounds of Brooklyn; Kickstarter, the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, will bring inspiring work from its creative community to market at its Smorgasburg/Flea Pop-Up. In addition to Kickstarter publications and products, visitors can purchase wares directly from local Kickstarter project creators, participate in workshops and meet-ups, or just learn more about them; and special chef demos, food-education events, scavenger hunts, and more.

Mike and I spent the weekend here (except for the millions of hours spent in the airport due to delays :(). It was beautiful and luxurious and great to just hang out.

Here is the view from our room (little cloudy on Sun).

On Sat we went to breakfast at Bagel Cove where Mike and I were officially the youngest in the entire restaurant. Then spent most of the morning and afternoon at the beach club. We had a ~ 4pm tee time at the Westin Diplomat Golf Club because paying over $200 a round EACH at our hotel didn’t sound like fun. I played one of the best round of golf in my life and am now actively looking to buy a used set of Callaway Golf Clubs (similar to the ones I rented).

We went to dinner at Burbon Steak and it was pretty good (we’re just so spoiled living in NYC) . . . its a very swanky looking restaurant and it was great to just walk upstairs to get home.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the pool for a little . . . they have a lazy river which I think you would love. 🙂

As you can tell from the pictures a storm came and they made us get out of the pool so we went inside to pack up but checked out their veggie garden on the way (which the hotel chefs harvest – cool, right?).

Then we ventured off the resort to The Blue Marlin Fish House which was profiled on one of our favorite shows, Diners Drive ins and Dives. They specialize in smoked fish and it was very good.

After lunch it was still rainy, we already had to check out of the hotel and still had about 2.5 hours to kill so we went to see Water For Elephants. It was SO good and followed the book nicely. Highly recommended!